SVSU maintained its winning streak over Grand Valley State University in the annual Battle of the Valleys fundraising competition for the 10th year in a row.
SVSU raised $32,000, nearly doubling Grand Valley’s fundraising total of $17,000. The total represents a significant increase over SVSU’s fundraising total of $26,000 from last year’s Battle of the Valleys events.
Every day last week saw multiple charity events put on by the SVSU Student Association, Greek Life and various registered student organizations (RSOs). The week of fundraising was capped by the annual Battle of the Valleys football game, which took place at Grand Valley this year. Grand Valley won out against SVSU by a final score of 34-6.
All of the week’s events raised funds for this year’s chosen charity, the Mustard Seed Shelter in Saginaw. Mustard Seed is a shelter for area women and children who are homeless. The shelter provides a safe place to stay, crisis support services, counseling and money-management services aimed at getting women and their children out of the cycle of homelessness and poverty.
On Monday, Buffalo Wild Wings in Kochville Township continued its tradition of helping Student Association raise money by allowing customers to donate a portion of their meal price to Battle of the Valleys.
Monday night saw the date auction take place in the Student Center Rotunda. According to Student Association event planners, turnout for the date auction was better than expected.
“Monday’s date auction was an event that brought a lot of laughs but still raised a lot of cash,” said Hunter Koch, a fourth-year political science major and SA representative. “We had a lot of participation, especially with many people signing up at the event. The Rotunda was pretty much full.”
Tuesday’s fire truck pull event was dramatically postponed due to a chemical spill in Science East. An emergency 911 call was placed an hour before the fire truck pull was set to start, and the fire truck that had been reserved for the event was forced to respond. The event was postponed until 6 p.m. on Thursday, where despite another emergency response around 4 p.m. to a fire alarm in Curtiss Hall, the event was finally able to proceed.
Ice cream sundaes were available in the Marketplace at Doan on Tuesday night, with proceeds going to charity.
“There was a line of students out the door for the first half hour of the event,” said Josh Cianek, a third-year history student and SA representative who worked the event. “It was awesome to see such a great turnout, especially considering the event was held at 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night.”
A charity dodgeball tournament took place in Hamilton Gym on Wednesday evening. Teams of six donated an entry fee before competing in Hamilton Gymnasium, each wearing their own uniform or costume. In shocking fashion, the SVSU club dodgeball team won the dodgeball tournament.
On Thursday afternoon, Fraternity and Sorority Life Day took place in the President’s Courtyard. SVSU’s fraternities and sororities each set up booths around the courtyard, where they could tell curious students about Greek life and raise funds for Battle of the Valleys.
The Sigma Pi fraternity got creative with one of the more unique fundraising techniques, selling spray-painted outer space landscapes, created in minutes in front of onlookers.
“SVSU is pretty dead-set on beating Grand Valley in the fundraising,” Sigma Pi President John Sullivan said during a break between paintings. “It’s just this weird talent I’ve got, and I figured I might as well put it to use and help out SVSU.”
Some RSOs organized their own fundraising. Thursday evening, Cardinal Radio started a 24-hour gaming livestream, where members of Cardinal Radio broadcasted themselves playing video games live on YouTube and solicited donations.
Friday night, students met at Stardust Lanes bowling alley in Saginaw Township, where they enjoyed three hours of unlimited bowling and shoe rental for a $15 donation.
Volunteers from Mustard Seed attended several of the events. They talked directly with students about how their donations would help Mustard Seed fulfill its mission and provide aid to the area’s homeless population.
In addition to those planned events, cashiers around campus raised money by selling “Caged Louie” cards for $1. Students who had meal plans could donate meals, resulting in a $3.50 donation through Dining Services. SA sold “Battle Gear” all week, t-shirts and sweatshirts with this year’s Battle of the Valleys logo.
